Beyond the Child Soldiers and Armed Conflict

Beyond the Child Soldiers and Armed Conflict

Aung Din
U.S. Campaign for Burma
September 18, 2008

I have attended the “Policy Forum on Children and Armed Conflict” at the U.S. Institute of Peace in Washington, DC on September 17, 2008. This forum was organized by the U.S. State Department and the U.S. Institute of Peace. I found many policy makers, legal experts, senior diplomats from the United Nations and foreign Embassies, senior officials from U.S. Departments of State, Defense and Labor, leaders of the NGO community, and academics actively participated in the discussion on policy and action to stop the practice of child soldier recruitment in many countries in the world. Personal testimony of a former child soldier from Uganda was very powerful and touching. This is very encouraging to learn that the international community is working hard to save children from being recruited into armed forces belonging to governments and non-state actors and also helping former child soldiers to reintegrate back to normal life.

As the title of the issue suggested, all participants focused on armed conflict as the one and only reason for the recruitment of child soldiers. I think we all are missing another factor, which is equally important and should be addressed at the same time.

My country of Burma, also known as Myanmar, has been under military rule for many decades. The Burmese military regime is ruling the country against the will of the people and uses force and violence against anyone who peacefully demands for democracy and fundamental rights. In order to keep their grip on power, they must have and maintain strong, powerful and obedient armed forces so they can control the populations and prolong their power. Therefore, since 1989, the military regime has tried to increase the members of its armed forces from 185,000 to 500,000 and install billion dollar worth of sophisticated weapons, mostly provided by the Chinese Government. The dream number of the generals was very difficult to fulfill, because many young men refuse to serve in the military voluntarily, and many soldiers desert their army posts everyday. Therefore, the regime’s recruiters aim their targets at children under 18, who are vulnerable and easy to frighten.

Children as young as 12 years old are abducted by army’s recruiters on their ways to schools or monasteries or churches or playgrounds and then ended up in army’s training camps, far away from their home towns. Soldiers catch some children when they try to run away from their parents. The children are asked to choose one of the two options; to go to jail or to join in the army. Most of them chose the latter. Those who refuse to join in the army are severely beaten, before the very eyes of other children, and then disappeared. Some young novices from Buddhist Monasteries are persuaded by soldiers and brought to training centers without the consent of Senior Abbots, who administer the Monasteries. After intensive trainings at the centers, they all are sent to ethnic minority areas and asked to participate in the killing and torturing of local residents. Some are assigned in army units based in major cities, and used to attack democracy activists. Some successfully flee the army, but they are caught and put in prison together with their parents. Family members and relatives, who have tried to bring their children back, are threatened by the military officials. Recently, U Thet Wai, who tried to submit a letter of complaint about the recruitment of child soldiers to the resident officer of the International Labor Organization, was arrested and sentenced to two-year imprisonment by a summary court.

Apparently, child soldier recruitment in Burma is not only for armed conflict, but also to strengthen the armed forces, which is the military’s regime major instrument to hold onto power. Civil war in Burma might end one day, by having cease-fire agreements between the regime and insurgent groups, or through the surrender or collapse of insurgent groups. However, child soldier recruitment will never end as long as our country is ruled by the military regime, which applies its loyal army to crack down on any challenge to its power. Currently, the Burmese regime’s armed forces have the largest numbers of child soldiers in the world, about 70,000 to 90,000 child soldiers, as reported by the Human Rights Watch.

If we are continuing to focus on armed conflict as the one and only reason for child soldier recruitment, many dictatorial governments, including Burma’s military regime, will still be hiding behind armed conflict, making some hollow promises to the international community, and then putting all the blame on insurgent groups, known as non-state actors. I strongly believe that armed conflict and a dictatorial regime are the two major reasons for child soldier recruitment and should be addressed at the same time. We need to move the current debate of “child soldiers and armed conflict” to “child soldier recruitment in armed conflict and by a dictatorship”. I also believe that collective action by the international community to help the emergence of a democratically elected government in Burma, which will be responsible for the people and accountable for its conduct, will be the only way to end the recruitment of child soldiers and armed conflict in my country. Let’s save the children effectively.